Its Gabbie with your requested review. Had I known that the forums were up sooner, I would have reviewed this for you alot earlier so please forgive me. Hehehe.
So, simply lovely. I have never read anything of the origins on Mr. Filch and I'd always been a little curious, considering that he's a character we see through the entire series of the HP world. There's only a little backstory with him too, we know that he's a Squib and feels a bit of resentment for the students because of their magic and I liked how you played around with that. The little bits of his childhood that you showed here, first, hint at a wealthy family (I'm guessing by the house-elves of course that he kept in line) but disappointed parents. That must have been hard for him growing up and I'm glad that you gave us a bit of that while he admired Hogwarts. He may not have ever gone but he was just as in love with the school as say, a new student and it was actually very sweet. Now, on to Dumbledore! Just a quick thing but how did you manage to write for him at all? I avoid writing for him like the plague becuase he's just so complex but this was so good that I thought that I'd spotted his dialogue in the HP books somewhere. :D
What I also really loved was that bit of information you gave us about Peeves (I've always been curious about him) and the soon-to-be war that would break out between him and Filch. Hehehe.
So, Ms. Pince! It was such a smooth introduction to her character and I'd always sort of wondered if she and Mr. Filch were even friends or had some sort of romance. ;)
The way they met was well-done, you introduced James and his gang briefly and that didn't deter me from your main character. :D So, yay!
I really enjoyed this one-shot and I finally, finally know where Mrs. Norris's name comes from! (I thought it was cute that she was following him around too) and the bond that might have developed with Argus reading Mansfield Park and using it as a way to talk to Ms. Pince again. ;)
Why do I want a short story now? Hahaha.
I don't have an CC for this, it was simply lovely and keep up the good work!
Much love,
Gabbie

Author's Response: Hello, and thanks for giving this its first review!

I'm really glad you liked the characterization here! Filch was definitely a challenge, but I wanted to humanize him a little bit, since as an adult he mostly seems to be used for comic relief or as an antagonist. I figured there had to be some reason he stuck around at Hogwarts despite being tortured by students. I also had fun toying with his love life :)

Dumbledore can be tough, that's for sure. I blame my dialogue on the fact that I've seen the films way too many times, and I'm just kind of comfortable with his way of speaking.

I'm glad you liked the little bit of fluff here, as well as the brief introduction of the Marauders, and Mrs. Norris. Can't you just see her and Filch becoming the best of friends?

Several people have said that they would like to see this turned into a short story. I don't have any plans like that for the time being, but I'm not ruling out more Filch/Pince in the future. How's that? :)